rushes tied together at each end; to the middle of this float a string is fixed, in length from eight to fifteen feet; this string is wound round the float except two or three feet, when the trimmer is to be put into the water, and slightly fixed by a notch in the wood or cork, or by putting it between the ends of the rushes.. The bait is fixed on the hook, and the hook fastened to the end of the pendent string, and the whole then dropped into the water. By this arrangement the bait floats at any required depth, which should have some reference to the temperature of the season,-pike swimming near the surface in fine warm weather, and deeper when it is colder, but generally keeping near its peculiar haunts. When the bait is seized by a pike, the jerk looses the fastening, and the whole string unwinds, the wood, cork, or rushes, floating at the top, indicating what has occurred. Floats of wood or cork are generally painted, to render them more distinctly visible on the water to the fishers, who pursue their amusement and the liggers in boats. Floats of rushes are preferred to others, as least calculated to excite suspicion in the fish.”*

This is the only species of pike which occurs in our fresh waters, or in those of other parts of Europe. It is one of the largest of lake or river fishes, and indeed, if the accounts which some writers have given of it be not greatly exaggerated, it occasionally attains a size not greatly inferior to the gigantic inhabitants of the ocean. Individuals

are recorded as measuring from five to eight feet in length, and its age is said to be as remarkable as its dimensions. The most famous of all pikes is that mentioned by Gesner, who states that it was taken in Suabia in the year 1497 with a brass ring attached to it, on which was engraven in Greek the following sentence (which we doubt was never carried into execution) :— "I am the fish which was first of all put into this lake by the hands of the Governor of the Universe, Frederick the Second, the 5th of October, 1230." If it was 267 years of age, we see no particular reason why it should not (as is alleged) have weighed 350 pounds, and measured nineteen feet long.

Pike, however, are occasionally taken in the English lakes above thirty pounds in weight, and Dr. Grierson mentions one killed in Loch Ken, in Galloway, which weighed 61 pounds. The colour of this fish in early life is of a greenish hue, but it afterwards becomes rather of a dusky olive brown upon the upper parts, marked on the sides with a lighter mottling of green and yellow, and passing into silvery white on the abdomen. We do not think highly of its flesh, although by many it is

held in some esteem.

This, in the angler's estimation, is the king of fishes, and it likewise occupies a most important place in the general good opinion of society-its merits as a living fish in cold water being only equalled by its excellence as a dead one in warm. It is a species of the greatest elegance of aspect, both in relation to form and colour; but its ordinary attributes being well-known and duly appreciated by a discerning public, we shall not here dilate upon them, but proceed to a general sketch of its natural history, and a brief summary of certain curious experimental observations and discoveries, which have been recently made regarding its earlier conditions of existence, by our ingenious friend and correspondent, Mr. Shaw.

The sea may be regarded as the genuine and best abode of this fine fish; for so soon as it has

entered the rivers, it begins to deteriorate in condition, the scales lose their brilliant silvery lustre, and the flesh becomes soft, pale, and insipid. It seems induced to return to the fresh waters by a natural instinct, wisely implanted for the purposes of reproduction-an instinct which enables it to stem the current of raging rivers, to ascend precipitous falls, and to pass over weirs and similar obstacles of human intervention, which no other or less impressive power could either vanquish or evade. This desire to discover a suitable situation in which to deposit their ova, seems the chief if not the only reason for salmon thus seeking the "rivers of water;"-the supposed torment produced by Caligus piscinus, or other marine adherents, having little or no influence on such migration. Barren fish are believed to continue their usual haunts along the coast at least numerous fine salmon occur in salt water at all seasons, and a few freshrun and well-conditioned fish may be found in almost every large river in each successive month throughout the year. It is during this instinctive seeking for the spawning beds, that the greater number are captured by stake-net, net and coble, cruive, weir, and the rod; but it is only in the river, properly so called, that the sportsman can ply his vocation-almost all attempts to angle salmon from the sea, having hitherto proved abortive.

Rivers and streams which flow from large capacious lakes, are sooner frequented by fresh-run spring salmon, than such as derive their sources from numerously divided mountain rills,-being

clearer on account of their mud having been previously deposited in the lap of their nursing mother, and warmer by reason of the receptive depth of that same parent. As the season advances, the number of ascending fish increases, and it has been observed that in this upland migration the proportion of early females somewhat exceeds that of males. Grilse, also, under which denomination are usually included such rather small or middle-sized individuals as are supposed to have never spawned, are said to ascend somewhat earlier than those of maturer age. Mr. Young of the Shin-fishery (Sutherlandshire), informed us some years ago, that the Shin salmon had begun to spawn earlier since they were protected from the leister, and other modes of poaching. Most of the heavy earlier autumnal fish were formerly destroyed, and few spawned till November; but during the then preceding season (1833) salmon were seen depositing their ova by the 14th of September. During our last visit to Sutherland, we found stout grilse (three pounds and upwards,) beginning to ascend the rivers by the 30th of May. They had indeed been observed as early as the 15th of that month.

It is chiefly, however, towards autumn that the heavy fish find their way to the actual spawning beds, which are often formed either in the shallow tributaries of the larger rivers, or in the upland streams of these latter, at a great distance from the sea. Many fish, far advanced with spawn, are then destroyed by various means; for it too often happens, that the "needy and the greedy" are